Tax time and donating cards to charity, how much do you write-off?

digicat · February 17, 2008 1:34PM

There have been a number of threads about donating unwanted cards to charities. How much do you consider the cards to be worth when you start calculating your annual deductions from your taxes? Do you just pull out a Beckett and figure the cards to be worth the "common" price listed?

BobaFett72 · February 17, 2008 1:54PM

how about 1 million bux

seems like i threw that much away buying cards from 1988-93 lol

cravetopps · February 18, 2008 12:10AM

digicat...use any reputable price guide. Also, make sure you have receipts for the donation listing the specific cards. Under most circumstances, you can deduct the FMV of your donated items but there are some exceptions.

WinPitcher · February 18, 2008 12:16AM

The real problem here is who accepts these donations?

Surely most do not want opened raw cards.

Steve

digicat · February 18, 2008 3:07AM

<< digicat...use any reputable price guide. Also, make sure you have receipts for the donation listing the specific cards. Under most circumstances, you can deduct the FMV of your donated items but there are some exceptions. >>

I got a letter back from the org that I donated them to, in which they specify the number of baseball cards (but not years or sets). For the most part, Beckett gives all commons a 4 cent minimum. I figured I could use that as a global reference. However, that means that an 800 count box of 1988 Donruss is worth $32 in writeoffs.

<< The real problem here is who accepts these donations?
Surely most do not want opened raw cards. >>

My church's youth department gleefully accepts any number of cards I've offered them. Children enjoy the quantity rather than the quality.

jfkheat · February 18, 2008 3:26AM

You can donate them to any childrens hospitals in the area. I donated about 400,000 to the Shriners Hospital several years ago. I used it for a $5000 deduction. I was told that any more than that and I would have had to get the cards appraised.
James

digicat · February 18, 2008 4:05AM

<< I donated about 400,000 to the Shriners Hospital several years ago. I used it for a $5000 deduction. >>

How did you come up with the $5000 figure ( or the 1.25 cents/card figure)?

jfkheat · February 18, 2008 7:59AM

I just figured them at 5 cents per card. I used $5000 because it was the max I could deduct without an appraisal.
James

fandango · February 18, 2008 10:28AM

<< You can donate them to any childrens hospitals in the area. I donated about 400,000 to the Shriners Hospital several years ago. I used it for a $5000 deduction. I was told that any more than that and I would have had to get the cards appraised.
James >>

wow! thats a lot of cards.....where did you get all those cards?

jfkheat · February 18, 2008 10:07PM

Opening boxes and packs in the mid to late 80s and early 90s. I still have bout 500,000, mostly commons. I need to go through them again and get rid of the ones I don't want.
James

fandango · February 18, 2008 10:13PM

so you had over 1,000,000 cards fron the 80's? thats about a rooms worth of crates....

by any chance you didnt have a bunch of 75 minis? or a collection of wax wrappers do ya?

WinPitcher · February 18, 2008 10:26PM

Is it me, or does that math not add up?

Steve

jlzinck · February 18, 2008 10:54PM

I was just happy to get rid of my Commons so I donated 10-3200 ct monster boxes every year from 1997-2000.

I got a receipt every year and used 2 cents for the FMV and when all was said and done I the net benefit to me, cash in my hands, was $70 to $100 per year.

Giving more than 100,000 cards over 4 years took a toll on the hospital. They wouldn't take any more from me.

Piman58 · February 19, 2008 12:25AM

So when you donate these cards you just pass them along in 800 ct. boxes or larger and don't break them down into smaller packets of 25 or so for the hospital to pass out?

BunchOBull · February 19, 2008 12:26AM

The math doesn't add up, he acknowledges that fact. 400,000 cards at .05 per card is $20,000. If he would have claimed that much it would have had to have been substantiated by an appraiser. Rather than take the trouble, he took the $5,000 deduction, no questions asked. I'd do the same.

I'd take $5k for a little more room in the office and less junk looming over my head.

jfkheat · February 19, 2008 12:02PM

Didn't save any wrappers. I don't have a bar top that needs covering.

Most of the cards I donated were 1988 through the mid 90s. Most were in 3200 ans 5000 count boxes but here were quite a few smaller boxes. When I moved, before I donated the cards, I had more than a full size pickup bed full of cards.
James

WinPitcher · February 19, 2008 2:53PM

Thanks Bunch, yes I see that now.

Steve

Jmnesq · February 19, 2008 2:59PM

You're allowed to take "flea market" value. Given that no one in their right mind pays a cent for commons, you'd be lucky to get maybe 1/4-1/2 cent per common for a deduction.

Ask your accountant.

kuhlmann · February 19, 2008 3:04PM

so your saying i can take 100,000 cards at 5 cents a peice to a childrens hospital. write off 5k on my taxes? or does it have to be 400,000 cards?

if this is true i might dance in the middle of my street.

digicat · February 19, 2008 3:15PM

<< You're allowed to take "flea market" value. >>

How do you guage that?

WinPitcher · February 19, 2008 3:17PM

Kuhl

first you have to make sure the hospital will even take them.

Steve

DeutscherGeist · February 19, 2008 3:47PM

Even if you can get a $5000 deduction, your total deductions must exceed your standard deduction.

digicat · February 19, 2008 4:03PM

<< Even if you can get a $5000 deduction, your total deductions must exceed your standard deduction. >>

Which is no problem if you've got kids or a mortgage.

jfkheat · February 20, 2008 4:33AM

The cards I donated were not all commons. I didn't go through every box card by card. I know there were some cards that listed for a couple dollars or more. In reality, the "book" value was probably 2X the common value, maybe more.
I don't know about the area you are in but there is a Shriners Hospital in Greenville South Carolina about 40 miles from where I live. They were tickled to get the cards. They sent me a nice letter thanking me fot the cards a couple weeks after I donated them. I also donated some to Greenville Childrens Hospital. It took 45 minutes to find someone to accept them and they acted like they could care less about the cards. I never received any thanks from them. I would call around to the childrens hospitals in your area.
James

promodeltodd · February 21, 2008 4:17AM

You should check with a tax/CPA in your area. The details can vary form state to state and organization to organization. I am finishing my taxes right now and have donated about 300,000 over the last 4 years. I donate mine to Volunteers of America because they are less strict on donating. Being an honest person, I go through the cards to pull some for team collectors and player collectors along with giving some to some neighbors kids. the left over ones get donated and I have gone over my max the the last two years by a couple thousand dollars worth. I use the Beckett OPG to determine the value being donated. If you donate to a children's hospital, they sometimes have restrictions. Salvation Army is much more strict and require any amount to be appraised. My Uncle did this and simply did what I did, then had a local dealer write a note that the cards were appraised for that amount, that being BV. Donating has helped me free up some room in the house and offset some expenses to get a nice tax check the last few Marchs.

EDIT: Keep in mind you need to itemize on your taxes to be able to write them off.

digicat · February 21, 2008 5:00AM

<< If you donate to a children's hospital, they sometimes have restrictions. Salvation Army is much more strict and require any amount to be appraised. >>

Wait, the org's that you donate the cards to have restrictions, or the IRS has restrictions on donations to those orgs?

When I've donated, I've gotten a letter back that describes the donation, but not the "value." e.g. "Thank you for your donation of 35,000 sports trading cards."

cravetopps · February 21, 2008 5:19AM

<<<The details can vary form state to state and organization to organization>>>

Federal taxes don't vary from state to state. You get the same deduction on your 1040 for a legitimate charitable contribution regardless of where you live. The main thing is to make sure the hospital you donate your cards to will provide you with documentation acknowledging your contribution and that the institution is a "not for profit" hospital or what the IRS calls a "qualified organization". Not all hospitals or organizations are the same as stated above.

Since your contribution is under $5,000, you could use price guides or sales of "similar sales" on ebay, for example, as the basis for determining the FMV of your contribution. I doubt the IRS would audit you but if they did audit this particular line item, the auditor would want to see as much information as you had such as receipts (what you paid), lists of the items you donated and the source used to calculate the FMV. If it were me, I would have itemized lists, receipts of what I paid if available, photos of what I contributed, the official acknowledgement from the qualified organization and the price guides or closed auction data that I would need to support the FMV. As long as the total deduction was less than 20% of your income, I think you would be in great shape.

BTW, the qualified organization does not state a value for a non-cash contribution but if you gave them an itemized list, the organization could easily provide a more detailed letter but they still would not put a value in it. That's your job.

promodeltodd · February 21, 2008 5:48AM

Of course Federal Taxes do not vary from state to state, but the organizations that accept cards and other items for tax deductible donations do. If you are not a business, and this is only a hobby to you, then to provide receipts of what you paid for them is not required. My accountant certainly says I have no way to prove the cards I paid for as a kid 15, 20, and even 30 years ago will be pretty hard to do, and I do not sell very much at all to make this a business or even have the intention to make money on this "hobby".

As far as the amount that can be deducted, that all depends on your income. What I can donate is different form what Jack, Charlie, or frank can deduct. I certainly am responsible for finding the value of these cards as anyone making the donation does. I have always provided a detailed list of every card that I donate, broken down to set, year, price, quantity of each card. The Salvation Army specifically requests that ALL sports cards donations be appraised locally here. Perhaps in another area, city, or state, they may not be so strict. The Volunteers of America form states right on the form "IRS Form 8283 must be filled out and accompany your income tax return if the value of your gifts exceeds $5,000, an appraisal may be necessary. Please refer to IRS Form 8283 instructions". I tried scanning the VOA form, but it would not scan due to the yellow "copy" and light print on back. For the item description, they only put Sports Cards and did not specify quantity or even number of boxes. the first year I did it, they only wrote down 12 boxes. Since then they have only written sports cards. I do not think they understand the quantity and value of cards, not do I think they care. I take the time and effort to care for them.

Again, this is what I do, and I do this on the advise of my accountant. Where you take your cards might have a different procedure. Good luck!

digicat · February 21, 2008 5:56AM

So, if you were to donate, say, 10,000 1988 Donruss commons to a local non-profit cherity, would you need MORE "market value" sources than the 2008 edition of the Beckett Annual Price Guide?

promodeltodd · February 21, 2008 6:04AM

<< So, if you were to donate, say, 10,000 1988 Donruss commons to a local non-profit cherity, would you need MORE "market value" sources than the 2008 edition of the Beckett Annual Price Guide? >>

I would ask a CPA or tax preparer. I took the November adn December high BV of the Beckett On Line Price Guide as my source. This was advised by my accountant to be sufficient. If I neede them appraised, I would do the same thing and have one or both of the dealers I know, write a letter stating how the value was determined. It is pretty hard to get an idea of FMV for 1988 Donuss commons since they do not sell. If you go a dealer, they are most likely going to charge you as close to BV for commons if you were filling a set as they can, so this would be acceptable based by the powers that be. Again, you are asking tax questions on a sports card forum, so other than telling you I stayed at a Holiday Inn express last night, my word is not better or worse than any one else here. I recommend what your tax preparer says to do, just give him as many details as you can and he/she should ask all the right questions when dealing with this type of situation.

cravetopps · February 21, 2008 6:19AM

digicat....chances are, you would not be audited. But if you were, it would not be hard for a diligent agent to find that you could buy a complete set of 1988 Donruss for about $5. So, roughly 15 complete sets at $5. The agent could certainly challenge your source but it basically boils down to whether you think it's worth the risk of having to pay the taxes and any penalties. It would take a really aggressive auditor to challenge you on this so if it were me, unless you have other "red flags" on your return, I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

Tax time and donating cards to charity, how much do you write-off?

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